What has me so bothered by Republican Presidential candidates weighing in on the trial? A little thing called judicial independence. Each one seems to think being President means they have the right, no the duty to interfere with the courts. They are also using it to beat Obama around the head with accusations he did not step in to ensure Anthony was convicted. It isn’t the President’s job to do this. If anything, he should remain silent.

Sarah Palin may not have declared herself, but we all know she’s such a media ****** she will eventually. She said ““It’s almost strange that the president has not yet made one statement on the issue of the death of young Caylee Anthony. Why the strange silence, Mr. President?”

Is it me, or did Palin just accuse the President of being a closet child killer. At the very least she is implying Obama is happy the accused child murderer was set free. What would she have Obama say?  Do we really need a politician stating the obvious. Aside from the fact this would be seen as interfering with STATE laws if Obama spoke out on the trial, Palin would be the first to stand up and screech Obama is interfering in State rights.

Michelle Bachmann, another right wing evangelical who wouldn’t know the truth if it reared up and bit her in the ass said this: “Well, I’ve been visiting all the primary states, and I’ve been talking to people, and people all over the place are asking me, why, in Barack Obama’s America, someone who murders a baby who happens to be white doesn’t get punished.” There we have it boys and girls, no suspected white child killer has been found not guilty in the entire history of the US of A. until a black man took office. This isn’t just a superficial statement, it reeks of political opportunism. This is one of the stupidest statements I have ever heard.

And finally Herman Cain stepped into this mess. Let’s play spot the problems with this: “I can promise you Casey Anthony and anyone else who I think might’ve killed their children will have no business in a Herman Cain administration. President Cain would look her right in the eyes and ask her point blank if she killed that little girl, we’d get right to the bottom of it.”

Cain is stating clearly he sees no problem with using his position to 1) interfere with the judicial process and 2) not worry about guilt or innocence, if he things the person is guilty, he’ll manipulate the system to see “justice” done. The key words here are “I think  might’ve”. It’s up to the courts not individuals to determine this. Like it or not, justice doesn’t always prevail, but that’s reality. To step over the courts and institute mob style rule guarantees one thing – a lot of innocent people will die.

The child’s death was tragic enough. Do we really need politicians stomping on her body to push their own political careers?

noun
Canadian political straw man used by politicians and police to justify abuse of power. Empty word to describe anyone they are afraid of. See: citizen
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Want to see one of the G20 “anarchists”? Still unconvinced about the abuse of power that took place here in Toronto last year? Listen to John Pruyn, 57, of Thorold speak at the G20 Redux protest at Queen’s Park one year after the largest mass arrests in Canadian history.

It’s time Canadian politicians, police and hockey commentators of dubious fashion sense are forbidden to use the word anarchist.

“There had been absolutely no signs of this coming,” … “Both during the G-20 [leaders’ summit in Toronto] and the 2010 Olympics these thugs were well known to be organizing and preparing to take action and criminal activities on the streets. There were no indications of that leading into last night,” he said.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com

I call bullshit on this. Just how many criminals and anarchists live in Vancouver? Or were they bused in for this special occassion?  Blaming the rioting on “left wing pinkos” (thank you Don Cherry for revisiting the Red Menace once again) or any variation there-off is a fools gambit. This was group dynamics in action. Anyone who has watched a large group of people morph into a rampaging mob can testify, this type of activity turns on a dime. Mobs “flash” and turn violent in seconds. A pack mentality takes hold and basic rules of society are thrown out the window. I watched this happen back in the 80s when Hamilton played in the Grey Cup. I lived downtown and watched as hordes of people turned from a jovial group to a booze fuelled nightmare.

Any sane person in this country could see potential problems on the horizon. In fact, people were discussing this very issue prior to the game (For example http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r25980885-Win-or-lose-will-there-be-a-riot-after-the-final-game-They). By calling the rioters anarchists, the Mayor has evoked images of a political agenda. This may have been anarchy, but this was nothing more than alcohol fuelled mob in action. They were every day run of the mill people swept up in mob dynamics.

How many riots have occurred after sports games in the past? I can rattle off 15 since the 1980’s. A quick whack at google dug up an article outlining the worst ones: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=neumann-110617_vancouver_canucks_riot&sportCat=nhl  Papers have been written on this phenomena. This begs the question: does Mayor Robertson live in a cave? Using the G-20 fiasco as an example by the way, simply discredits his entire point of view – he needs to watch the Fifth Estate documentary “You should have stayed home” to get an inkling of how truly out of control the police were in this city. The two were not the same, by any stretch of the imagination.  Law abiding citizens are allowed to protest – the police are not allowed to beat on those citizens. While I’m on this tangent, why didn’t the police stop the “anarchist element” during the G-20 if it was “well-known” they were preparing to cause havock? Why did they want all that fancy crowd control equipment, if not to protect the city. No, the burning and vandalism was used as a pretext to halt any LEGAL protests. A mob fuelled on testosterone and booze is not the same as citizens exercising their right to protest. The police made no effort to halt the vandalism here in Toronto, indeed, they stood back and watched it happen, but eagerly detained, beat and threw into holding pens peaceful protesters. There were enough police in this city during the G-20 to halt any violence. They were wall to wall in some areas, but they took no action against the true perpetrators. They stood by as Toronto was held hostage by both the G-20 farce and those committing violence. “To Serve and Protect” who?

But back to the topic at hand – 100,000 people poured into the downtown area to watch the game, yet Robertson thinks “there were no signs” of potential trouble. So either Vancouver is home to 100,000 criminals and anarchists, or Mr. Robertson needs to get his head out of the proverbial sand. He’s advocating new methods of “intelligence gathering” to prevent such events. No… the government needs to acknowledge large crowds can become violent, very, very quickly. This has happened before and will happen again. Entire studies are done on controlling potentially volatile crowds – and on sports fans in particular. Instead of funding more “intelligence gathering” how about turning to the experts on how to defuse the situations. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know you can’t gather intelligence in a situation like this. Groups like this are also opportunistic, as witnessed in Hamilton over 2 decades ago. The crowd broke into a construction site and used whatever they found – bricks, 2x4s, whatever they could loot. When no weapons could be found, the crowds used sheer mass of bodies to achieve their aim. I sat on a bus that was surrounded by a crowd of young men who shook the bus back and forth trying to turn it over. Booze addles brains. Mobs create packs. And all the intelligence gathering in the world is useless when you only look for anarchists.

Further reading: National Geographic article on why sports fans riot. (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/06/0620_050620_sportsriots.html)

[Texas] State Rep. Debbie Riddle (R) would fine or jail anyone who employs undocumented immigrants — unless it’s to clean the house, mow the lawn, or do other work “performed exclusively or primarily at a single-family residence.”
the week.com

House Bill 1202 will allow the wealthy to continue to hire their servants, indeed it sees the hiring of illegals in poor paying jobs as completely acceptable. Whatever will the rich do if they can’t pay substandard wages? Face it, illegals have no rights and this bill enshrines this in law. Come to Texas and be our cleaning staff and servants, but don’t think you can upgrade your skills or become a full member of society – we’ll throw you in jail.

This Bill does not address the problem of illegal immigration – it compounds the problem and codifies a 2 tier system of society: we are rich and will make any laws we want. You are not so we’ll jail you for doing the same as we are.

This is coming from an elected official. Do we want an elected official here that sees nothing wrong with this? Riddle justified her Bill by stating well home owners have no way of verifying if the person they want to hire is illegal. Others are backing her justification, saying we just don’t understand the problem. Wouldn’t the solution be to allow all potential employers access to E-verify (the system designed to vet whether a potential job candidate is eligible to work)? Yes I know it would entail cooperation at the Federal level and may run into some privacy issues, but it has to be better than this nonsense. Changing laws is not always easy, but setting up a system that allows a 2 tier system of society and sanctions it is wrong.

Further reading:

Slate Magazine on the Bill
Valley Central article
Houston Chronicles has a good article as well

Today, Nov 1, 2010 Mr McCance formally resigned from his position on the school board. Rightfully so. He’s entitled to his opinions, he’s not entitled to promote an agenda of hate and advocate gays kill themselves.

To all those who threatened McCance over this – get a fucking grip. Threatening his family makes you no better than McCance. Hate is hate, regardless of your motivations. His wife and children were not responsible for his tirade and if you can’t see what’s wrong with threatening McCance and his family with violence, then you need to do some serious soul searching, get a clue. Smucks.

“Royal Bank Canada is one of the planet’s greenest companies” according to one of its own brochures. Coporate Kanada saw fit to include RBC as one of the top 50 in a competition dubbed Canada’s Greenest Employers, which purports to recognize organizations that have created “a culture of environmental awareness.” Yet RBC is now the major financier of Alberta’s tar sands, one of the largest industrial projects in human history and perhaps the most destructive. The tar sands, now the cause of the second fastest rate of deforestation on the planet, are slated to expand several times its current size.

Dudes! I’d take your manifesto a wee bit more seriously if you hadn’t been caught on camera driving away in an SUV! Come one. If you are going to attack “Corporate Kanada” for it’s anti environmental activities, the least you could do is drive up to the site you are going to firebomb in a Smart Car. Seriously – an SUV? I hope it was at least a hybrid. Maybe you can contact the makers of Smart Cars and get them to sponsor you. Or better yet, ride up on a bicycle.  Now that’s environmentally conscientious!

What makes me think these nobs don’t see the irony of  using an SUV to strike in the name of environmentalism.